Atkins Diet
Program
Learn how atkins
diet program work
plus free atkins diet recipes
What is the Atkins Diet Program?
Atkins
Diet Program is a low carbohydrate diet, which was suggested by Dr Atkins
as a means of promoting weight loss. He suggested that weight loss through
dieting can be optimized not only by decreasing caloric intake, but also by
manipulating the body’s metabolism to trigger fat burning process.
This breakthrough weight loss concept of fat metabolization was first
discover 40 years ago.
What is the basis for atkins diet program?
The basis of atkins diet program stems from the idea that foods which
contain carbohydrates, (e.g. rice, bread, pasta, sugar) promote insulin
secretion and hence energy storage and the storage of fat. Conversely, low
carbohydrate diets avoid high insulin levels and encourage the body to burn
fat stores.
Does it work?
Many people claim to have dramatic weight loss on the Atkins diet
program. Formal studies comparing it to more traditional diets are limited.
Two research papers published in the New England Journal of Medicine (2008)
suggested that very obese people on the Atkins diet program did indeed lose
more weight over a six month period than those on a conventional diet.
Are there any concerns about the Atkins diet?
The Atkins diet is very controversial. It flies in the face of established
views, which consider that a healthy diet should consist of about one third
fruit and vegetables (five portions a day), one third carbohydrates (bread,
cereals, rice, pasta, potatoes), one sixth meats and fish and one sixth milk and
dairy products.
Many dieticians are concerned that low carbohydrate diets are too restrictive
and that these diets place people at risk of vitamin deficiencies as well as
heart disease due to the high content of fat.
Recently there have been multiple health scares about the Atkins diet
program with
reports of dangerously low blood minerals and irregular heart rhythms occurring
in those on the diet. Again, these reports are anecdotal only – there are plenty
of people on the Atkins diet program who have not had these problems. Until there is
more formal research, it would be impossible to know if such health problems are
made more common by the diet, or if the case reports are just coincidental.
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